Restore to ESX from tib (Acronis), or physical?

Discussion in 'Virtual and Cloud Computing' started by Boycie, Jul 26, 2012.

  1. Boycie
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    Boycie Senior Beer Tester

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    hi,
    long time, no speak!
    $h1t storm as usual! :D

    Dell Poweredge 1900 has just failed on me. I have an Acronis backup from last night.
    I have a spare HP Proliant G5 server with ESXi 5 installed.

    I was contemplating restoring to the physical server using the Acronis universal restore although working remotely used VMware converter tool to import as a VM although it wont start - due to difference in hardware i guess.

    Would the recommendations be get back to site and restore to physical, or boot from Acronis universal restore CD and point to .tib?
     
    Certifications: MCSA 2003, MCDST, A+, N+, CTT+, MCT
  2. Sparky
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    Sparky Zettabyte Poster Moderator

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    Long time no see mate!

    I usually convert the image to a virtual machine in Acronis - then either put into a Hyper-V ot VMware environment.

    Is the Dell PE 1900 toasted? Can get parts for them next day if needed.
     
    Certifications: MSc MCSE MCSA:M MCSA:S MCITP:EA MCTS(x5) MS-900 AZ-900 Security+ Network+ A+
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  3. Boycie
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    Boycie Senior Beer Tester

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    hey sparks! How you doing? Thanks for quick reply!
    Yeah, would be my favorite plan too although Acronis isnt actually installed on the box per se. We use it through Kaseya mate.
    So i have a tib file which i imported using VmWare converter tool (which i seem to recall dealt with different hardware for me in the past) to my spare ESX host although it wont start.
    There is also a vmdk file which i believe it has converted although this failed to mount on ESX local storage due to a disk IO timeout. Problem being i am doing this remotely and they dont have any physical boxes on site - just two hosts and my spare ESX i setup last minute this afternoon.

    Edit: PERC controller gone, out of warranty. A load of their servers are about to be P2V so its come right at the wrong time!
     
    Last edited: Jul 26, 2012
    Certifications: MCSA 2003, MCDST, A+, N+, CTT+, MCT
  4. Sparky
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    Sparky Zettabyte Poster Moderator

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    All good here mate.

    You got a logon to the Acronis site? You could download a trial if you want to use the P2V (or image to virtual! :) ) tool.

    I use this when I'm working on a migration project - I image the live servers, convert them to a VM and boot them up on my laptop with VMware workstation. Handy to have if something is overlooked when migrating the live servers.

    Is it a critical server? Could get a RAID card and pull the config from the disks if you need to get the physical server running again.
     
    Certifications: MSc MCSE MCSA:M MCSA:S MCITP:EA MCTS(x5) MS-900 AZ-900 Security+ Network+ A+
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    Boycie likes this.
  5. Boycie
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    Boycie Senior Beer Tester

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    ah that's good to hear mate!
    I have got a log on.
    Acronis (or the Kaseya, agent side of it) had already created vmdk from tib although timed out when copying over to the datastore (v-sphere only sees the store and Veeam VCP doesnt work on 64 bit so unable to copy over from local disk).
    So i tried the converter tool from VmWare which i am sure has worked in similar circumstances in the past.

    Thats interesting about pulling the config from the disks mate - how is that done?
     
    Certifications: MCSA 2003, MCDST, A+, N+, CTT+, MCT
  6. Sparky
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    Sparky Zettabyte Poster Moderator

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    Apologies for the delay mate.

    If you get an identical raid card make sure there is no config on it in regard to hard disks – this is common if it is a refurbished part.

    Replace the failed raid card and when booting you may get a prompt that a foreign config has been detected on the disks which isn’t recognised by the raid card. If you get a prompt to import then do that and then the server should boot.

    If it doesn’t boot then you may need to go into the raid card setup, initialise the disks and then you can import the raid setup from there (e.g three physical disks in RAID 5 setup)

    HTH! :)
     
    Last edited: Aug 1, 2012
    Certifications: MSc MCSE MCSA:M MCSA:S MCITP:EA MCTS(x5) MS-900 AZ-900 Security+ Network+ A+
    WIP: Microsoft Certs
  7. Boycie
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    Boycie Senior Beer Tester

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    Sorry for delay sparks!
    The second restore for the HP server worked. The problem was it only had 2GB of RAM in it and about 20 Citrix users so ran like a dog!
    Had a Dell 2900 with me which was far better. Had some problems initially with the RAID drivers although Acronis allows you to inject the drivers from the recovery boot CD which was OK. Pretty impressed with Acronis!
    Thanks for your help mate. Virtual beer on its way over!
     
    Certifications: MCSA 2003, MCDST, A+, N+, CTT+, MCT
  8. Sparky
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    Sparky Zettabyte Poster Moderator

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    Glad you got it sorted mate :)
     
    Certifications: MSc MCSE MCSA:M MCSA:S MCITP:EA MCTS(x5) MS-900 AZ-900 Security+ Network+ A+
    WIP: Microsoft Certs

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